Considering the topic of this blog one could assume that I am about to write a post about a Bart Simpson-esque student deciding to pull the fire alarm or set a trash can on fire for a gag, then get caught by police and dragged before a judge to learn that the story dad or grandpa told him about the things he did in his school days are not just considered not funny these days but actually a crime worthy of a hefty fine and/or community service.

Well, I’m not going to tell that story.  Instead this is about the trick-or-treaters who missed out on our house for the hour we took out of this evening to check up on my grandmother.  Things started out normal enough.  She called and the one she wanted to talk to was in the bathroom, so she said to have her call her back.  No problem, and thank– {click}.  Sigh.  My grandmother always hangs up immediately following her last word.  When she’s done, she’s done.  So, when the call is attempted to be returned- no answer.  Okay, maybe she’s in the bathroom this time.  Try again- nope.  And again.  Nada.  Keeps trying, and panic arises.  You see, my grandmother is 86 and I’m told was having some chest pains earlier today.  Okay, time to go over to her apartment to see if she’s all right, still attempting to make contact on the way.  We get over there and she is happily in discussion with a pastor who also sells household goods, I guess for extra income.  She loves the products he sells, or rather sold, as apparently he is quitting that line of business.

So, long story short (everybody now: TOO LATE! 😛 ) what happened is she unplugged the phone she had in her living room because it had too many cords and one of the buttons sticks.  That left her with her bedroom phone, which wouldn’t be a problem since her apartment is pretty small except she had the ringer turned off so she wouldn’t be woken up when asleep.  Doh!  We hooked back up her phone, explaining to her that she could still take calls even if she couldn’t dial any number with a 3 in it, and that I would be happy to get her a new phone ASAP.  No more troubles with not being able to call her I hope.

Okay, we return and only get maybe two more trick-or-treating groups for the rest of the night.  Where have they all gone these last few years, seriously?  Maybe scares like the latest one of tainted chocolate candy from China [don’t worry unless you’re in Canada, says the company]?

If you really want to hear about my jobs these last couple of days, I think I’m going to have to make you wait until tomorrow.  It’s 11 now and I’m tired.  Good night.

Well, we have narrowed down our choices for baby names!  (Insert drum roll here) They are:
FIRST NAMES:
Mallory
Lindsay
Evangeline
MIDDLE NAMES:
Autumn
Athina (or Athena as it’s usually spelled; I like the first one better)
Alexandra

We know we want a middle name that starts with an “A” because all of our girls have one.  We’re just not sure which name we like with which middle name.  If you’ve read my previous posts, especially the one called Baby Names, you can see that I’ve given up my ideal name of Frances.  Ok, it’s not my ideal name, that’s why I gave up on it, but I did want to name the baby after my late grandmother.  I just wish she had a name that was a little easier to convince my husband to name our baby and for me to WANT to name the baby.  Anyway, these are the final three so we’ll see how it turns out.  I am the one who signs the birth certificate in the hospital, so I can always sneak whatever I want on there, including Frances if I so desire…  JUST KIDDING!  I wouldn’t do that…  unless they pump me full of some crazy drugs to get through the labor…  then I can’t be held accountable for my actions.  But nothing is set in stone yet; we’re still a few months away – I will site the example of my youngest-for-now.  Her name was going to be Sydney until I was about 7 months pregnant…  then all of a sudden I said to my husband, I don’t think I like that name anymore!  I thought it was the hormones causing my sudden change of heart, but to my surprise, my husband agreed that HE didn’t like the name anymore either!  We think it might have had something to do with our other daughters calling her Cindy – they could not grasp the concept of reversing the sounds.  So anyway, these are the finalists in the name race for now, I will keep you posted on any changes!

Ok, with a baby on the way, I’ve got baby names on the brain.  With 3 girls already, we’ve exhausted our supply of favorite girls’ names.  Since we just found out this one is also most likely a girl, we have been pondering ways to name the baby.  Our first 3 all have middle names that start with “A”s, so we’d like to keep that pattern.  The problem is, since we’ve used up all of our top choices by now, I would like to name this baby after a relative.  My relatives don’t have the best sounding names…  I don’t want to offend anyone here, so no offense, but Dolores (my grandmother), Phyllis (my mother), or even Lisa (my name = my husband’s idea to use it) just don’t appeal to me, to say the least.  I was very close to my deceased grandmother whom my husband never met, but her name was, GULP, Frances.  Now, I do not regret using the middle-names-start-with-A pattern at all, I think it’s cool and all of our girls have pretty names; so far anyway, but if we didn’t have to stick to the pattern, we could name her something we like with Frances as a middle name to use as the namesake.  But, with our lovely pattern at stake, if we’re going to use the name Frances, it has to be a first name.  After being blessed with 3 beautiful girls and getting to give them 2 names each of our choosing, I think it’d be nice to use a namesake this time.  But my husband HATES the name Frances.  I can’t say I blame him, he never met my grandmother, and I’m not a big fan of the name either, but I think it would grow on us and we could also call her by her middle name or a nickname.  And, let’s face it, we can’t get more flak than we’ve already gotten for naming our third child Disney!  That’s a long story, best to be saved for another post…  but let’s just say little Disney is our happiest baby yet, so who has any right to say what’s in a name?